Does the following sentence use the active or passive voice?

Active/Passive Voice

You’ve likely read about active and passive voice in Richard Wydick, Plain English for Lawyers (Chapter 4). Here is some more information on what these different constructions are and when you should use each of them. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for links to more online resources covering this topic.

What is passive voice?

In a sentence using active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action expressed in the verb. In a sentence using passive voice, the subject is acted upon. Examples:

a. active voice: The police officer arrested the man.
(The police officer is the subject of the sentence and is performing the action of arresting.)

b. passive voice: The man was arrested by the police officer.
(The man is the subject of the sentence but he is not performing the action of arresting.)

A shortcut to try and identify passive construction in your writing is to look for an extra “be” verb (is, are, was, were) and the word “by”.

a. active voice: The police officer arrested the man.

b. passive voice: The man was arrested by the police officer. The man was arrested.

Why should I use the active voice?

1. The active voice is more concise. For example:

a. active voice: The dog chased the cat. (five words)

b. passive voice: The cat was chased by the dog. (seven words)

2. The active voice is often stronger than the passive voice. For example:

a. active voice: Judges must explain the reasons behind their decisions.

b. passive voice: The reasons behind their decisions must be explained by judges.

3. The passive voice tempts the writer to omit the identity of the actor, thus producing a fuzzy truncated passive like this:

truncated passive: A copy of every Action Letter shall be sent to the Clerk of the Administrative Office for entry and filing, and a memorandum briefly describing the Action Letter shall be distributed to each Commissioner within three days thereafter.

(Using passive voice here leaves a lot of questions: Who is supposed to send the copy to the Clerk? Who is supposed to write the memorandum? Who is supposed to distribute the memorandum? We can’t tell, because the writer used the truncated passive to hide the actor.)

Tip: In general, use the active voice in your writing.

Is there ever a good reason to use passive voice?

Yes. Here are the four most common good reasons:

1. Sometimes you may not want to name the actor because you want to play down the actor’s role in the event. (For instance, maybe the actor is your client.) Example: When the lights went out, several punches were thrown.

2. Sometimes it’s the action that’s important, not who does it. Example: This Act may be cited as the Unlawful Detention Act of 2002.

3. Sometimes you may not know who did the acting. Example: During the following six months, the fence wire was cut on nine separate occasions.

4. Sometimes you need the passive in order to connect this sentence smoothly with the preceding sentence or sentences. Example: The key question is, therefore, when did the defendant actually receive the summons and complaint? The summons and complaint were not served on the defendant in person until May 18th.

Tip: Be Consistent

Whether you are using active or passive voice, be consistent within a sentence.

a. He tried to act cool when he slipped in the puddle, but he was still laughed at by the other students. (Uses active voice in the first clause, passive voice in the second clause)

b. He tried to act cool when he slipped in the puddle, but the other students still laughed at him. (Uses active voice in both parts of the sentence.)

For More Information:

Grammar Girl, “Active Versus Passive Voice,” 2011. Access at http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/active-voice-versus-passive-voice.

Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL), “Active and Passive Voice,” 2012. Access at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/539/1/.

When a sentence is in the active voice, the subject of the sentence is the one doing the action expressed by the verb. In the passive voice, the subject is the person or thing acted on or affected by the verb's action. The passive voice is typically formed with a form of the verb be—such as is, was, or has been—and the past participle of the verb, as in "The ball was thrown by Jerry." Although sometimes criticized for being evasive, the passive voice can be useful when someone wants to emphasize an action that has taken place or when the agent of an action is unknown, as is often the case in news coverage.

In English class, we are taught the difference between active and passive voice.

The active voice asserts that the person or thing represented by the grammatical subject performs the action represented by the verb.

The passive voice makes the subject the person or thing acted on or affected by the action represented by the verb.

Active voice: Jerry knocked over the lamp.

Passive voice: The lamp was knocked over by Jerry.

Both sentences describe the same action taking place—Jerry making contact with a lamp and causing it to fall over—with the first sentence making Jerry the subject and the second making the lamp the subject.

The passive voice is often distinguished by its use of a linking verb form (e.g., was, had been) followed by another verb in its past participle form (e.g., "I have been given an opportunity").

Usefulness of Passive Voice

Passive voice often gets criticized as a weak and evasive form of expression. But it is useful for those instances when you want to emphasize the fact of an action having taken place rather than who performed the action. It is also helpful for instances when the doer of an action (also known as the agent) is unknown.

Active voice: The kids have cleaned the kitchen.
Passive voice: The kitchen has been cleaned.

Active voice: We found an old car in the woods.
Passive voice: An old car was found in the woods.

(There is also the mediopassive voice, which is a whole other animal that we discuss in this article.)

In the News

The differences between active and passive voice come up as a subject for discussion in criticism of news coverage. When news media reports on incidents of crime, for example, they will often use headlines that feature the passive voice: “Man (Is) Attacked on Elm Street” instead of “Person Attacks Man on Elm Street.”

The passive voice allows for a shorter headline, but more pertinently, it puts up front information that is known. In many cases, especially in stories involving crime, the fact of the crime being committed, and whom it was committed against, is known before who committed it becomes clear.

The reason for the passive is therefore practical: one might not know who carried out the attack, only that someone did, and that the attacker might still be at large. Even once an attacker has been identified, news writers might avoid the active voice for fear of stating what that person is accused of as fact. (Hence, “Arrest Made in Elm Street Attack.”)

The passive voice gets called out on occasion as a tool for expressing the avoidance of responsibility, like when one says “Mistakes were made” rather than “We made some mistakes.” Sometimes, as in our Elm Street example, it is criticized for placing what appears to be a burden of responsibility on the person who receives the action (i.e., the victim) rather than the person who performs it.

Passive voice is for when the state does violence. Active voice is for when a protester does? Got it. https://t.co/2ror8Sen1K

— Rebecca Traister (@rtraister) May 31, 2020

Confusing Active and Passive Voice

There are other instances that technically count as active voice but nonetheless use language that dissociates the performer from the action being performed.

“The lamp fell over” is active voice, but it feels like a passive statement because there is no obvious causative agent like Jerry in “Jerry knocked over the lamp.”

This occurs in news writing as well. A sentence like “a rock shattered the store’s window” is phrased in active voice—the subject is rock, the verb is shatter, and the object is window—though it might be derided as elusive because it avoids the question of who was the agent who propelled the rock that broke the glass.

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